Monster Party

Caden's much anticipated "Monster Party" finally arrived, and we had a blast!

Caden helped to make and deliver monster invitations to his friends. It's funny to see little 4 year olds interact with each other. Friends are very important to Caden and he just loves to be around people!

Caden just couldn't figure out how to contain his excitement and was BURSTING with energy the entire time! Maya couldn't figure out what to wear to the party... so many bows and so little time!

I loved that Caden included Maya in the party without being asked to. He always ran to her to give her hugs, made sure she was sitting right next to him and paid special attention to her.

Here are some pictures from our party:

We started off making foam monsters which the kids had fun with!

(I was so grateful for all of Ben's help getting ready for the party and during the party.

He was awesome!)

Playing outside!

Playing "pin the eye on the monster". Caden thought it was SO funny!!

The kids all ready to eat dinner (chicken fingers, fries and veggies)

Caden's 5 eyed-monster cake (The eyeballs are cakepops.. so delish!)

and the furry monster bodies ready for the kids to decorate!

Maya discovered that she LOVES cakepops!

(She calls them "eye... bahs!")

I made chocolate monster body parts (eyeballs, horns, fangs, arms, bows, teeth, etc) for the kids to decorate their own monster cupcakes. I wasn't sure if 4 year olds would enjoy this or not... but thankfully they loved it! One of the best parts of the party!

Hard at work decorating his monster cupcake

Maya didn't care about decorating... but she did manage to eat her fair share :)

Doesn't Caden have some adorable friends?!

Caden got some really awesome presents!

The monster pinata I made. Isn't he CUTE?

Smash!!

The kids gathering the candy from the pinata. All of the kids got a turn hitting the pinata, and Caden was able to break it on his second turn. Couldn't have turned out better!

Instead of treat bags, we sent the kids home with the cutest monsters!!

(Thank you Superstore sale section!)

This is Caden after the party with his presents. I couldn't possibly get him to look at the camera because he was too excited about his presents to take his eyes off of them! Ha!

So we had a great party and I felt very grateful that Caden has such good friends! I love birthdays and that they are such a good way to help kids feel important and special! And he definitely did!

Caden is FOUR!

I can't believe that my baby boy is FOUR years old! We had a blast today celebrating him. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make him feel SO special. He had the time of his life and felt so loved!

Here are a couple pictures from the day:

Caden enjoying his breakfast in bed (He requested Fruit Loops)

Caden teaching Maya how to say FOUR!!

Dad and Caden playing with Caden's new lego

Kung Fu Party!!

Auntie Lara with the kids

Cousin love!

The annual tradition of "smoking his head" into the cake!

Love the expressions in this picture!

Caden and Maya eating the cake!

I'm too exhausted from the day to write too much, but I wanted to post the "birthday interview" I had with him today!

-What's your favourite food? "Noodles and hamburgers"

-What are your favourite movies? "Toy Story, Cars 2, Monsters Inc, Kung Fu Panda"

-Who is your best friend? "Xander because I love playing with him and George and Jack because they teach me a lot about Mario"

-Where's your favourite place to go? "Grandma's house, Boston Pizza in Airdrie, upstairs and the zoo."

-What do you want to be when you grow up? "A zoo worker because I want to take care of the animals and even if they are about to poop on me I'll just open up the cage and let them walk around the zoo for a few minutes"

-What's the best thing about being four? "You can go on the Super Jet (at Calaway Park) and play Super Smash Bros."

-Who do you want to marry? "Maya, because she is so special and cute to me."

-Anything else? "My favourite utensil is a knife because you can stab things"

I love that kid so much. I am so grateful to be his mommy!

Happy Birthday, Caden!! xoxo

(Just wanted to say how special it was to have Sheri there for the party via Skype! Love that we can do that!! Thanks Sher!)

Roxie

We had such a fun week watching Roxie. The kids are helping to earn some money for our upcoming Disneyland trip and they took their responsibility very seriously. They were the best dog watchers ever. I think I may want a dog sooner than I realized!

Caden spent the entire week carrying around his toy dog (also named Roxie). He took him everywhere! We even tied his belt around the dogs neck and brought him on our walks. Every few minutes his toy dog needed to stop and go poo.

Maya shrieked with excitement every morning to see Roxie. She gave her lots of hugs and kisses (and I think Roxie actually enjoyed it!) and also lots of cheese! Both Caden and Maya loved to take Roxie on walks and they both especially loved to hold the leash.

We have missed Roxie the last few days and are excited to watch her again!!

Caden pushing Maya at the off-leash area

Caden and Roxie playing "hide and seek"

Not "Roxie related" but I just love these pictures of my kids...

Boy vs. Girl

Sometimes it shocks me how different Caden and Maya are!

Maya REALLY cares about how she looks. She spends her play time dressing up, looking in the mirror, smiling at and kissing herself. She kisses her dolls and puts them to "sleep". She sings and dances. She spends her time trying on shoes and figuring out how to get pants on. She walks around the house pretending to talk to "mama and papa" on the phone.

Caden spends his play time running around the house, jumping off of couches and crashing cars into each other. He plays with animals that attack each other and die! He spends his energy plotting how to defeat the next bully he meets.

Maya has a 10 minute tantrum every single morning because she always has a different outfit in mind. She becomes FURIOUS if she wants to wear something that is far too dirty or too small to wear, or when it is time to change into pajamas. (I try to let her choose between the clean clothes that fit her, but that often isn't good enough, haha). She gets very upset when I try to put her clothes on, instead of letting her do it herself.

Caden will wear whatever I ask him to as long as I put it on for him. He hates worrying about getting dressed. While I get him dressed, he says things like, "I just ate some serious boogers" and "I'll show you stinky!" to which he ends with the biggest fart he can... and of course the biggest laugh!

But despite how different they are in so many ways, they are best friends! They love to play together all day long. Maya follows Caden around the house saying "eeee... what's up doc?" (Although it sounds more like eee... uuu.. dooo"). Anything he is interested in, so is she. Caden reads Maya books and they play "dolls and cars" together. Maya has learned to crash her dolls into Caden's cars, and Caden is learning how to carry Maya around the house softly.

I just love seeing them compromise their differences and making memories together!!

Cousins

Caden randomly asked me this morning,

"Mom, are cousins just people who live far away?"

So sad! Let's not let that be the case! We need to plan some visits and skype dates asap!!

(Long) Picture Post

Yes, I suck at blogging. I know.

I always feel that there is SO much to write and I never have enough time... so I don't write. And then there are so many MORE things that happen that I should write about... so then I am so behind and I just read your blogs instead! (Or I would if you'd update once in a while)

So here is my update post with lots of pictures to tell the story of the last few months!

We had such a fun trip to Utah for Dave and Cortny's wedding. I am so happy for both of them and so excited to have Cortny as a new sister! The wedding was so beautiful (as were both of them) and we had an incredible open house with the best food EVER up in Canada.

We are expecting baby #3... a girl! We are so excited, happy and nervous about this next step! Caden has been so funny about this pregnancy. He was actually the one to announce it to our ward during his Sunbeam lesson about bodies. He always comes and "talks" to his baby and tells her what he is wearing, what he is eating and what he is thinking.

Caden's artwork of a baby in moms tummy

This is me at 14 weeks. Obviously I am A LOT bigger now (at 23 weeks) but luckily don't have any updated pictures ;)

We had a very fun Easter! It is so fun to be a mom and get to experience the excitement and magic of things like easter egg hunts all over again.

Ben and Maya playing on Easter morning

We took the kids on a walk to get some Easter pictures. I am so happy with how they turned out. I am definitely not a photographer, but I am grateful to have a nice camera to get some good pictures of these stinkers.

Doesn't Maya look beautiful in her new Easter dress? (Thanks Grandma!)

Crazy Kati Anne broke her leg. We had fun (I'm sure a lot more fun than her!) visiting her in the hospital. Caden is quite concerned about when he will have his surgery after seeing both Dave and Kati Anne go through it. At the rate he runs and jumps around, I'm sure it will be soon!

I am still taking cake orders, but being more picky with which ones I take. We are trying to save up enough money to take our family to Disneyland/Carsland next summer. I have a jar in my closet full of the money we get from each cake order... and I am happy to say the jar is getting pretty full! I let Caden put the money in after each cake order so that he can see the progress we are making and get excited about it!

Here are a few of the cakes I've done the last few months:

We have been loving the nice weather and being able to play outside. We've gone hiking, fed the ducks at Bowness park, found salamanders on worm hunts, gone to the Zoo almost every week, played at the park multiple times and just had fun! I am so happy that it is summer!

We had a fun surprise visit from David, Sheri and Scott. I love being an aunt! Baby Scott is so much fun. He is ALWAYS happy and smiling! My kids love their cousins so much and loved having Sheri's family here. (Come back anytime!!!)

Kati Anne graduated a few weeks ago. I am so grateful to live close to family so that we can be involved in these things! She looked incredibly stunning and we are so proud of her for walking across the stage without her crutches!

Caden and Maya have been taking swimming lessons the last few months. Caden wasn't so sure about it at first, but was so brave and ended up LOVING it. Maya got to have Mom and Dad come to class with her, so she loved it the whole time. Swimming lessons just ended last week and this week the kids start Gymnastics! I am so excited for them... they will LOVE it. (And thanks to the government of Canada for proving these expensive lessons free of charge to me for being a Stay-at-Home-Mom!)

The kids (especially Maya) have a new obsession with dressing up. They use anything they can find and are constantly trying "new looks". Caden's current favourite look is "captain underpants"... unfortunately, he doesn't care if the underpants are clean or not! Maya wears her sunglasses every second that she can... even if that means during Sacrament meeting. Maya has also decided that pants are unnecessary and takes them off at every chance she can.

I have been busy with Activity Days. We just had a big "Amazing Race" day camp on Saturday. It was a lot of work and I am so glad it's over. But it was a blast and the girls LOVED it. Activity Days is over now for the summer (yes, my calling is better than yours because I get summers off!). Here is a picture from our "Tea Party" a few months ago-

Saturday night we went to see Cars 2. I love our annual tradition of going to see Pixar movies. Cars 2 was very fun and we all enjoyed it. (Well, Maya mostly enjoyed the large popcorn bag on her lap...)

We finally got sod in our backyard! Thanks so much to Ben for all of his hard work and to everyone who helped us out. We had a lot of support. We are also in the middle of painting the kids rooms. So far the rooms look great and I can't wait to be finished!

We are all doing great and loving life.

.....And I promise to do better with regular updates!